• 1970s History
• 1970s Home
• Cadenza
• Cantata
• Chorale
• Coda
• Corelli
• Model 101
• Model 102
• Model 103
• Model 103.2
• Model 104
• Model 105
• Model 105.2
• Model 204
• Model 303
• Model 304

Click here to view the pdf of 'A Musical Experience'

KEF History - The 1970s

By 1973 the company was evolving the concept of computer assisted "total system design", at a time when the world's very first 4-bit microprocessor was still in its infancy! KEF engineers, using a given set of parameters, could for the first time actually "see" what the response characteristics of a loudspeaker system would be. KEF was the first loudspeaker company in the world to take the new technology available seriously in order to achieve this. Now it was the use of computers and digital test methods which provided the KEF engineers with the relevant crossover and drive unit data at a glance, thus dramatically improving their ability of KEF's to produce loudspeakers of outstanding accuracy. Amongst other benefits, KEF loudspeakers could now be computer matched as an almost identical pair - to within one-half of a dB.

1973 then saw the introduction of the first KEF Reference Series Model, the 104 which swept reviewers, distributors, retailers and customers off their feet. The archetypal 'domestic monitor' 104 provided the standards of a broadcast monitor loudspeaker in a domestic package, probably for the first time.

With the installation of a Hewlett Packard computer at the Maidstone Head Office in 1975, the Corelli, Calinda, and Cantata were all designed under the total system concept and with them came a second Queen's Award for Export in the same year.

A Musical Experience was a joint EMI - KEF presentation devised and presented by Joan Coulson and Raymond Cooke, CAMI Hall, New York. Monday 8th May 1978

But 1977 saw the most radical KEF design yet in the Model 105 which apart from setting new standards for flat frequency response introduced a design by which the mid and treble were split from the bass box and placed within a contoured moulded enclosure above the bass enclosure. The added ability to angle the separate unique head unit provided the opportunity for the user to tailor the 105 to his or her own environment. The loudspeaker was of such general importance and consumer interest that a leading quality UK Newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, featured the Model 105 on the front cover of its magazine supplement.


More Reference Models were to follow. 1978 saw the launch of the 103 and 101 and, in 1979 a further refined 105/2 Model appeared.

Contact Us